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Thursday, December 5, 2013

A Perfect Storm is Brewing

In 1990, the Kentucky General Assembly took bold action to
reform P-12 education. Through passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act
(KERA), the General Assembly agreed to invest in education and to implement
numerous policies and actions that would raise student achievement. At the
time, Kentucky was one of the bottom two or three performers among states.

Fast forward 23 years, and we now see Kentucky at or above
national average on many measures of student achievement. KERA worked due to
the bold vision of the General Assembly and the tremendous work of Kentucky
educators.

In 2009, the Kentucky General Assembly again took bold
action to reform P-12 education. With the passage of Senate Bill 1, the General
Assembly pushed P-12 education toward a higher goal of college- and career-readiness
for all students. While KERA had focused on basic academic performance, Senate
Bill 1 now focused on college/career-readiness and national/international
competitiveness of our Kentucky graduates. Senate Bill 1 has worked as evidenced
by increased college/career-readiness rates and graduation rates.

With KERA, there was a significant investment in funds.
Programs like Extended School Services, preschool, professional development,
teacher salaries, school-based decision making councils, Family and Youth
Resource Service Centers, textbooks, and technology received significant
dollars through the state budget.

With the passage of Senate Bill 1, there were no additional
dollars provided for standards development, assessments, accountability,
professional development, textbooks, technology, or student support services.
The clear message from the General Assembly was educators had the funding they
needed in existing budgets. However, no one dreamed that throughout the next
four years the General Assembly would have to greatly reduce funding for public
education due to the recession.

Basically, the General Assembly has not been able to honor
the commitments made through KERA or Senate Bill 1 due to the recession and
lack of economic recovery. How deep have the cuts to education been?

Since the 2008 session of the General Assembly, the per
pupil amount has dropped by $33. In FY 2009, the General Assembly provided
$2,461,236,248 for basic SEEK funding; the amount in FY 2013 was
$2,397,016,693. The General Assembly has allocated $64,219,555 less during a
time that our Average Daily Attendance has increased by more than 10,000
students.

KERA provided Flexible Focus Funding for professional
development, preschool, textbooks, safe schools, and extended school services.
Since the passage of Senate Bill 1 in 2009, funding for professional
development has been reduced by more than $9 million, safe schools have been
reduced by more than $6 million, extended school services have been reduced by more
than $19 million, textbooks have been reduced by more than $21 million, and
preschool has been reduced by $3.8 million. In FY 2008, Flex Focus Funds
totaled $154,099,600; in FY 2013, it was $93,143,900 -- a
total reduction of $60,955,700.

KERA also established a strong focus on technology. In the
last four years, we have seen a reduction in excess of $8 million in basic
support for the technology infrastructure and the loss of a $50 million bond
that helped districts purchase technology equipment.

The impact on education has been significant. In the last three
years, we have lost more than 1,800 teachers due to budget cuts.

Local school districts have had to rely on local property
taxes to offset some of the state cuts. In FY 2009, local support for education
totaled $825,184,656. In 2013, the amount had increased to $872,904,155. This
was an increase of $47,719,499 from local sources which rely heavily on
property taxes. The net result is that the state is pushing more of the cost of
public education on to local property owners. This means that we are seeing a
growing gap in equity of funding between school districts. The gap between the
school district with the highest funding per pupil and the school district with
the lowest funding per pupil in FY 2009 was $8,719. By FY 2013, the disparity
had increased to $11,338. This means that the highest funding school district
has on average more than $250,000 per classroom to provide a high quality
education.

The significant reduction in state funds is only one part of
the perfect storm that is brewing. In the spring of 2014, our school districts
will have to deal with the budget cuts from federal sequestration – an estimated
$57 million in cuts to programs like Title I, special needs students, migrant
students, and other at-risk student populations. Estimates of the loss in
positions are around 1,300.

Finally, our school districts will see the other part of the
perfect storm as they budget for 2014-15. The Kentucky School Board Insurance
Trust settlement will happen in the next few months and will place another
$50-60 million cost on our districts. Districts will have to borrow money to
pay these assessments. To repay the loans, districts will have to take money
out of their operating funds that normally would be used to hire staff and
provide support services for students.

The perfect storm is certainly brewing in Kentucky
education. The only possibility for our school districts is to seek restoration
of state funds since we see little hope coming from the federal level of any
type of resolution to federal budget and sequestration cuts.

Educators and parents all across Kentucky have come to
together to focus on restoration of education funds during the 2014 General
Assembly. Failure to see funds restored will result in significant layoffs for
the 2014-15 school year. Parents will see the impact in larger class sizes and
less support for children who are struggling. Kentucky will see declining
graduation rates, higher dropout rates, fewer children reaching college- and career-ready
requirements, and negative impacts on social, health, and juvenile justice
programs. I hope readers will let their voices be heard.

2 comments:

As a teacher in a rural school district, I certainly fear the future for our schools and our students. My teammates and I work very hard to provide the best educational opportunities possible for our students. We are doing our best each and every day. We are dedicated to not only meeting the needs of our students daily but also improving our craft so that we will be ready for the future challenges through continuing education at our own expense. We need help. We can't do this job alone. We certainly can't do it with even fewer teachers. I plead for support.